Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Moods

"Bad moods must be fed to survive. Starve it." - Nancy Wilson from this post on questions such as How Do You Get Yourself Out of a Bad Mood?

Monday, February 06, 2012

Company "Sin"-amon Rolls

This has been a fun recipe to consume with company lately. I finally updated it since my copy was all marked up. I needed to type it up for a friend, so thought I'd go ahead and post it, since I don't post much these days. Enjoy!

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Source: (adapted from) Money Saving Mom (my friend Cara and I did the Math – 35 cents a cinnamon roll! even cheaper if you find powdered sugar on the cheap)
Yields: 2 round pans (about 16 rolls)
Note: This is actually a fairly simple recipe, although practice does make perfect. Be patient with yourself the first few tries. You’ll get faster and better as you make them!

Dough Ingredients:
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm milk (10 oz)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten plus 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 1/4 cups flour (Original recipes calls for 4 cups, but I’ve found the dough to be more manageable if I use 4 ¼. You might even need more. CHECK dough after first few minutes of kneading and if it looks too wet, add a bit more. It will make your life so much easier if dough is not very sticky!)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling Ingredients (this is the doubled version; half it if you want to be good):
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 1/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Icing (this too is the doubled version; half it if you want to be good):
• 4 teaspoon milk (after all icing ingredients are mixed, you might need to add extra splashes of milk and keep mixing until it seems right)
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 8 tablespoons (or less) butter, softened
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
Put the dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and run on the dough cycle. Remember to check in a few minutes to see if you need to add a little more flour. After the dough cycle is finished, roll the dough into a large rectangle and spread it with 2 Tablespoons melted butter and 2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.

Roll up (from long end to long end) and cut (I use dental floss – a trick my mom taught me) into 10-15 rolls and place in two greased round cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until browned. Spread the icing on as soon as they come out of the oven.
You can also cover the unbaked rolls with plastic wrap, stick them in the refrigerator overnight, and then bake in the morning. You can freeze the baked rolls, and I suppose you can just freeze the dough unbaked, but I haven’t tried that. Let me know if you do!

Orange Icing Option:
• 3 tbsp. butter, soft
• 1 tbsp. grated orange peel
• 2 tbsp. orange juice
• 1 1/2 c. confectioner's sugar